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Insurance Companies to Force Genetic Testing

Life insurance is a con. We all know that. They take your money. Then when you make a claim they force you into court to make you back down or run you up a huge legal bill. I cashed my life insurance in when they stopped paying the share investment bonus that doubled what you paid in. Now if you close the policy you get back "less" than you paid in premiums.

Insurance companies want compulsory genetic testing

No one is perfect out there, so when they say they will make people have genetic tests before they can take out a policy you should be afraid. The big three insurers say they have not had one complaint from consumers so far. Unfortunately, the ones who had genetic tests have not made any claims yet. There will thousands of complaints when the insurance companies fail to pay out.

Thankfully, you cannot be forced to have a genetic test currently. However, you must hand one over if you have already had one - by law. Just why the government made giving up private information compulsory under force of law is a mystery.

Of those who have had a test or have had one when instructed by insurers (400), a very high 20 percent were refused cover. This is much higher than the half a million who gained cover without a test.

◆ Genetics by Ty Buchanan ◆

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Inquiry Into Tax Dodge by Tech Giants is a Lie Fest

It amazes me how people can blatantly lie, and continue to lie, when everyone else knows the truth. There is a Senate inquiry in Australia into big companies, mainly tech giants, avoiding tax that is owed to this country. Mr King, the head of Apple Australia strongly denies that the company is reducing its tax payments through questionable methods. Fair "crack in the door mate" we all know what is really going on. Is Ireland involved in these methods?

Apple and Google are the major companies targeted by the inquiry. Britain is planning to regulate to make them pay what is due there. Other countries are watching to see what Britain does. Of course, the easiest way to get money out of the tech megaliths is to introduce a revenue tax irrespective of profit, because it is profit that is being skimmed off subsidiaries by head office for non-existent services.

The Australian Tax Office wants its pound of flesh from internationals as it does from locals. Last year Apple paid $80m in tax from profit of $250m. Revenue was $6 billion. While this is a tax rate of 32 per cent, the profit margin of only 4.17 percent is highly suspect. Apple charges a fixed rate of 30 per cent on all app revenue in its App Store. Furthermore, it has huge income from sales of its own merchandise for which the profit margin is not widely known.

Mr King said that Apple would willingly enter into an agreement with the ATO. By saying this he clearly believes that he can choose not to follow Australian law. Apple's tax rate of 32 per cent seems reasonable at first glance when compared to Google Australia's rate of 15 percent. However, Google's profit margin of 13 per cent is more realistic.

Lastly, Mr King of Apple said that Australian app developers had made a fortune out of new apps. He fails to mention the gargantuan amount made by Apple from these. The guaranteed 30 per cent on all downloads is a money grab by any definition considering Apple has set this rate itself and it can easily raise it at any time, even for apps already available.

✴ Technology by Ty Buchanan ✴

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NRMA Lies to and Robs its Customers

The car insurance industry needs a shakeup. There is disgusting bias by insurance companies. It is like the police policing the police. Why are insurance companies allowed to judge blame in accidents when a particular outcome benefits them?

If shared blamed is decided upon by the insurance companies of both parties involved in an accident, the insurance companies keep the $600 excess paid by the drivers. This is a shocking state of affairs. An independent tribunal should be set up to judge the fault outcome of motor vehicle accidents.

It is absurd to leave decision making in the hands of an involved party, namely insurance companies. An aggrieved party can appeal to the insurance company itself. The outcome is certain - the appeal will be turned down. Apart from the Small Claims Tribunal there is not much an insured person can do.

If a party is uninsured an insurance company will write a letter to the insured person saying that due to insufficient evidence he/she is at fault for the accident: thus, the insurer keeps the $600 excess. This is a policy planned and carried out by insurance companies to rob their customers.

Very little is recovered from uninsured drivers. This is because few respond to letters from insurance companies. For a phone conversation to be used as evidence an insurer must announce that the call will be recorded and anything said will be used as evidence. If an uninsured driver hears this he will obviously put the phone down.

Basically, if you are an insured driver the insurance company judges you guilty until proven innocent. This is not how common law works. Innocence is the assumed initial state of a suspected individual in common law. It is surprising that so many people accept the existing state of affairs and do not challenge the current situation.

One of the worst offenders for the prevalent fraud is the National Roads and Motorists' Association (NRMA insurance). The Royal Automobile Club of Queensland (RACQ) is not far behind. But all insurance companies continue with this fraudulent behaviour.

I will be setting up a website where frustrated and dare I say angry insured drivers can vent their feelings on how they have been robbed. Watch this space!

✴ Law by Ty Buchanan ✴

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Countries Must Bring in REVENUE TAX.

Multinational companies are making a mockery of national tax policies. Countries have set up collection systems based on the pre-internet period. Everything today is mobile. People and money are flowing freely around the world.

Google, Apple, Facebook and others are moving income from all their national operations to Ireland where the tax rate is ridiculously low. They inundate branches in other countries with mythical charges from head office, so profit is reduced to zero. Of course, in reality it is not zero.

What countries should do is instigate a REVENUE TAX. This idea will shock and frighten CEOs. It is the last thing they want. Companies should be levied with either revenue tax or company tax whichever is the greater. Setting a revenue tax rate at a realistic 4 per cent will solve national tax collection problems. Companies will not be able to avoid paying some tax.

Say a company has revue of $100 million. The tax payable on this would be $4 million. If the firm makes a 10 per cent profit of $10m then the tax owed to a government would be $10 x 0.45 (company tax rate), which means tax of $4.5m is due. Because $4.5 m is greater than $4m the normal company tax method would apply, namely $4.5m.

If a company fiddles the books and declares no profit at all they would have to pay a minimum of $4 and could not avoid it. At least large companies would pay something to national governments. Some businesses make as much as 30 per cent profit on revenue. A national government would not get the $30m x 0.45 = $13.5m. However, $4m is better than nothing.

Economics by Ty Buchanan

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Australian Laws Lag Behind Technological Change

Culture changes steadily with technological development. Some values have their own inertia which means that they stay around for much longer. Legal adaptation to a new environment is very slow. We are living with laws suited to a pre-internet era.

The Uber app took the world by storm. It spread through many countries and clashed with legal restrictions which were made for the benefit of taxi drivers and the public. Unfortunately, people do not like rapid change to the legal system. It upsets the way they live.

Like the Chinese, Australians embrace new technology, much to the frustration of government. Whether it is legal or not we adopt new things. They "get in" because their is some legal framework that benefits some participants in the market place. New systems get under the barrier, so to speak.

Australians seems to lead the world on illegal movie downloads. This is because the market is distorted. We pay over the odds for the latest films due to overpricing by American companies: they obviously do not understand that they lose money in the long run.

Some market distortions are being dismantled by Companies who have had the market to themselves for years. The pay TV business Foxtel has halved its small packages largely due to the appearance of Netflix Australia. Unfortunately, Teltra partly owns Foxtel and sells the premium Foxtel service with their broadband bundles. The Foxtel subscription remains the same but with two free movies a month given now. Some companies will never learn! This is why consumers move to new products, legal or not.

Science by Ty Buchanan

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Revolutionary Mineral Drill Rig Announced

Drilling techniques in industry have not changed for decades. Oil rigs are built in he same old way. Now something has come along that will improve drilling enormously. The Deep Exploration Technologies Cooperative Research Centre based in Adelaide has announced a new type of drill. It is constructed with coiled tubing.

Costs will fall dramatically as drilling is faster. Australia's mines are mostly over 30 years old. New mines have to be established. We can only rely on the old mines for another 20 years.

No longer is it necessary to keep stopping to add a new drilling section. The new drill is a continuous coil of tubing. Being smaller and lighter transportation is easy. The motor is at the bottom of the shaft, not at the top. The tubing no longer twists during drilling. Any twisting will occur in the other direction as the motor pulls the tubing around.

Less drilling power is needed as the tubing is being pulled around in already drilled space. A lot of torque was lost with the old system as the engine had to force the whole length of the drill around. Drilling will continue with fewer drill breakages. Thus, downtime will be reduced.

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Technology by Ty Buchanan